A Guardians of the Galaxy Tease

We all know that Guardians of the Galaxy will be the next big team movie from Marvel Studios, and it’s supposed to set up events for the 2015 Avengers sequel — which is once again being written and directed by Joss Whedon.

Based on a group of comics characters that are not well-known to the general public, Marvel is taking a huge chance with this movie, but tying it in to the blockbuster Avengers is a great way to hedge the studio’s bets.

Marvel has, of course, been very secretive about the project, but Production Weekly has offered this as a synopsis for the movie:

A U.S. pilot ends up in space in the middle of a universal conflict and goes on the run with futuristic ex-cons who have something everyone wants.

The MacGuffin here — the something everyone wants — is assumed by fans to be the Infinity Gauntlet — or the “Infinity Gems” that power the Infinity Gauntlet — and that Thanos is the power behind the pursuit of the Guardians. The wearer of the Infinity Gauntlet (with its gems) would wield ultimate power over all of space, time and reality. So it’s a good idea to keep it out of the hands of the mad Titan!

In the comics, Thanos hails from Saturn’s moon Titan. Thanos fell in love with the personification of Death, whom he called Mistress Death, and has tried to woo her by creating destruction and mayhem to catch her eye, but so far it hasn’t worked. Now Thanos plans to use the Infinity Gauntlet to destroy all life in the entire universe, in hopes that such a massacre will impress Death. At least, that’s how the story unfolded in the comics. Who knows how it will be adapted for the silver screen…

Thanos wields the Infinity Gauntlet

We’ve seen the concept art, so we know which team members from the comic books are being eyed for the big screen. They include (from left): Drax the Destroyer, an undead warrior revived to kill Thanos; Groot, an alien tree/humanoid hybrid; Star-Lord, a sort of interstellar lawman; Rocket Raccoon, a genetically engineered… er, raccoon; and Gamora, Thanos’ adopted daughter who once served as her father’s assassin, but rebelled.

It’s easy to imagine that Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, will be the “human pilot,” since he’s the only human on the team. But I think the roster should/will be changed/tweaked by the time the story hits the screen. The perfect existing Guardian character to assume the role of the astronaut is Major Victory, a.k.a. Vance Astro, who, in the comics was (wait for it…) an American astronaut launched toward Centauri IV on a 10-centuries-long journey.

It would be terrific to see Vance Astro and his psionic powers back with the team, but he’s not the only vital character missing from a Guardians/Thanos story: How you can have a Thanos story without his ultimate nemesis, Adam Warlock?

Whew, this entry would go on for pages and pages (Don’t even get me started on the alternate versions of Vance Astro), so I’ll break it off here and note that there are still too many unknown factors to be taken into account. We need to know more about the shape of the film. Screenwriting newcomer Chris McCoy has his work cut out for him with this project!